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There’s a fine line between fantasy and reality for children. My parents like to recount a story about when I was five and pretending to pass out imaginary coins… my father walked over to playfully spin me around in a circle and I panicked as he lifted me up, squeezing my fists so the “coins” […]

My three-year-old daughter Bridget has been blaming all of her problems on Catfish lately, even though he’s her favorite stuffed animal. He’s a Siamese-looking cat with a fish on his collar. She snuggles up to him every night even though he keeps wetting her bed. And I was already having a rough day the other […]

My husband John likes to say the problem with not showing up is that it gets harder and harder to show up the longer you go without showing up. He’s referring to cutting classes whenever he says this, since that was one of his youthful follies and he apparently never used my trick of establishing […]

As we were passing a man with dwarfism the other day, my five-year-old daughter Brontë leaned in to tell me: “Mom, that man kind of looks like a kid.” I went pink, silently praying he didn’t overhear her, yet not wanting to apologize (in case he didn’t). And while considering how to explain why saying […]

Today, I’d like to take a break from our regularly scheduled program to talk about a wildly inappropriate TV show. (Because 8 PM is when the kids go to bed and all the zombies come out.) See, one of my blogging buddies writes great posts about Game of Thrones at I Can’t Possibly be Wrong All the […]

Hey everyone! I hope you’re enjoying Fall so far. It’s my favorite season: crisp, but not freezing. The leaves turn pretty colors and the world smells of cinnamon. Plus, the kids go back to school… yay! Brontë is a Kindergartener now, and her little sister Bridget really wishes she were too. I know, because she […]

So my kids were watching Tom and Jerry this morning when my daughter Brontë finally stood up to announce: “Well, the mouse won AGAIN. Like ALWAYS.” And stomped off in disgust. “But if the cat won, that would be the end of the show,” I tell her. “Yeah, so the mouse is gonna SAVE THE […]

My five-year-old daughter and I are eating lunch when she casually starts reminiscing… Brontë: So I really enjoyed seeing the Eiffel Tower with you… Me: We haven’t been there yet. Brontë: Yeah, I’m PRETENDING. Me: Oh, okay. So, we could see the entire city from far above… Brontë: Because SOMEONE hasn’t taken me yet. Me: […]

Struggling to Make Her Eat: A Dialogue Between Mom and Her 5-year-old Child (That mother is me. I’m the mom in this scenario.) Scene: It’s lunchtime. Mom has lovingly prepared a princess-pink divider plate with a bean burrito and a handful of strawberries, with the stems scooped out, because her daughter has loved strawberries since […]

My 3-year-old daughter Bridget is starting to sting together sentences and have actual conversations, which is when I think parenting starts getting real fun. I mean, I love them before that and all, but it’s a whole lot of screaming and you-cleaning-up poop before intelligible sentences come into play. Graspable language is when you start […]